Saturday, January 5, 2013

Without tenderness of spirit the most intensely righteous, religious life is like the image of God without His beauty and attractiveness. It is possible to be very religious, and stanch, and persevering in all Christian duties, even to be sanctified, and be a brave defender and preacher of holiness, to be mathematically orthodox, and blameless in outward life, and very zealous in good works, and yet to be greatly lacking in tenderness of spirit, that all-subduing, all melting love, which is the very cream of Heaven, and which streamed out from the eyes and voice of the Blessed Jesus.Many Christians seem loaded with good fruits, but the fruit tastes green; it lacks flavor and October mellowness. There is a touch of vinegar in their sanctity. Their very purity has an icy coldness to it. Their testimonies are straight and definite, but they lack the melting quality. Their prayers are intelligent and strong and pointed, but they lack the heart-piercing pathos of the dying Jesus. The summer heat in them is lacking. They preach eloquently and explain with utmost nicety what is actual and original sin and what is pardon and purity, but they lack the burning flame, that interior furnace of throbbing love, that sighs and weeps and breaks down under the shivering heat of all-consuming love.Divine tenderness of spirit has a behavior to it which is superhuman and heavenly. It instinctively avoids wounding the feelings of others by talking on unpleasant things, wrangling in an argumentative way, by referring to painful and mortifying subjects. It carries its point by ceasing to contend and wins its opponent by seeming to let him have his way. It cannot scold, or scowl, or threaten; it has lost the power of quarreling. Tenderness of spirit makes its home in the bosom of Jesus, and from that Holy Castle, looks out upon all other creatures, good and bad, through the hopeful, pleading medium of the Heart that was pierced on the cross. It feels all things from God's standpoint, and lives but to receive and transmit the spotless sympathies and affections of Jesus. It understands the words of the Holy Ghost, "Be ye tender hearted, forgiving one another." Tenderness must be in the very nature, and forgiveness is but the behavior of that nature.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Who will go to Hell?..??.. Instinctively we may think of the sinister kind of people... murderers, drug pushers, child molesters, etc. However, the Bible says: “...anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:15). This tells us that Hell will not only contain such evil people, but all those whose names are not written in the Book of Life.

According to the Bible, all human beings have a sinful nature that will condemn them to hell (Rom. 3:23, Rom. 6:23) unless they receive God’s gift of life. The Book of Life is the registry of Heaven, containing the names of all those who have received God’s gift. No one recorded in the book will go to Hell.

So how do we get our name written in the book of life? By placing faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, as our Lord and Savior! The scripture tells us that God sent Jesus into the world to take our sins upon Himself, as our substitute (2 Pet 2:24). He bore our sins, and died in our place -- so that all who would believe in Him and His sacrificial work would be saved. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

At the moment that we sincerely repent of our sins, and place our faith in Christ to live for Him, our name is written in Heaven (Luke 10:20), and someday when our body dies, our soul will go to Heaven to be with the Lord for eternity (Col. 1:5).

How about you? Is your name written in Heaven? Are you living for God? Are you a backslider? If you would die tonight, are you sure that you would go to Heaven, instead of Hell?